History: M. Ella Lees, 1859-[ca. 1946], was born in Ontario. In 1883 she came to southern Alberta to live with her brother, William R. Lees, who managed the McLaren Lumber Mill near Pincher Creek. In April 1884 she married F. Charles Inderwick, who had come from Ontario in about 1882 and started the North Fork Ranch north of Cowley, Alberta. They had three sons, Basil Lees, ?-1915, John Frederick, 1885-?, and Cyril, ?-1962. The ranch, run in partnership with Jonas Jones, was not a success, and the Inderwicks returned to Ontario in 1888. They moved to Ceylon to run a tea plantation, ca. 1891, but Ella returned to Perth, Ontario to raise her sons in 1894.

Scope and Content: The fonds consists of diary (1883-1884); letters written to her by Mary Macleod and Louisa Scobie (1889-1895); two versions of her reminiscences, one written under the pseudonym Margaret Ward (1930), and photographs of the Inderwicks and North Fork Ranch.